Sadly it went away during FNIX rising, now we are pivoting to mega fun extreme action game where there is no internal logic.
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Uh… I only played a few minutes so far… What difficulty are people on when they say they can use bats on Tanks?
Also… If the enemy is isolated, I don’t see why this is unrealistic…
I bet killing any robot with a bat when they are in group is a totally different story. 
That being said… I think the game has amoured bots later, so this might be unrealistic to beat the shit out of them with a bat… Yeah…
They should make armour platings resistant to regular melee weapons… 
As I said, I’m really early in the game and it seems that the first robots are not armoured…
Usally on skirmish wish is normal mode, and probably sometimes gurella (hard mode)
If it’s a seeker than maybe. However in general despite what class the machines really are, it’s not realistic to be able to kill a machine with a wooden bränbollbat, even though some higher tiers are metal I think and the sledgehammer is also metal. Both are blunt force objects and the machines are made of metal, in the game you play as a teenager. You could probably make dents, but even if one were really fit and strong, it wouldn’t make that big of a difference. Realistically that is.
Before the release of FNIX rising (when meele was added) the story overall and tone has been grounded and dark. Through the main base game missions, it’s established that the machines are a mega big threat and you SHOULD be scared. To an even greater significance in the story DLC Alpine Unrest.
That is at least how the game was initially marketed and was until it shifted direction towards a more less grounded wacky tone where nothing really has to make sense anymore.
Couldn’t a baseball bat rip some core components from lower tier enemies (I think they are called “prototypes”) like fuel tanks, optics, etc.? I mean… If I were to hit a Boston Dynamic robot on a core component, it would at least be rendered ineffective (“dead” or "alive, but ineffective). I don’t know, because I’m new at this game, remember.
Does your video explain the perceived “shift in direction” that you are expressing? I ask, because I don’t feel like the game is wacky right now, but, again, I’m only at the beginning. (In the Archipelago, in a church.) So far, I think that the trailers I saw are accurate depictions of what I played.
EDIT:
I’m watching your video named “Generation Zero 2020 Review” right now. Hopefully there aren’t too many spoilers…
EDIT #2:
Oh… So it’s mostly FNIX Rising that brought the wackiness, is that it? At least that’s what I get from https://youtu.be/r0LDZJQuax0?t=532 (8:52).
EDIT #3:
It mostly seems inconsistent and half-baked, more than out of tone…
I had to stop watching the video because it seemed to fall in spoiler territory.
I guess I’ll go back to play! 
I feel your pain. I have the same love-hate relationship with No Man’s Sky (because I actually liked No Man’s Sky 1.0, and they “ruined” the game for me with Update 1.10; but that’s off topic)
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The game has a brännboll bat, not baseball. They are different sports.
It’s like I said before, if one was strong enough than maybe could make some dents. Considering they are machines for war, I have a hard time thinking strong metal and materials wouldn’t be in the design. Maybe you could ealisy damage a prototype runner. But remember they have guns. you dont bring a knife to a gun fight.
My videos Generation Zero 2020 review, Generation Zero Resistence review and of course the video I posted and made this thread for Generation Zero (2021) Oversaturated Mediocrity. All videos go over it in a way or another.
To adress what you say in your edits. FNIX Rising started the tone shift. It didn’t become “wacky” outright and it technically hasn’t become it right now. What I mean is, with how the game presents itself in dialouge and changes to gameplay, it’s slowly straying away from it’s dark and grounded tone. And has gone far enough where the game could easily just stop caring about the old established tone and go for something more action mega wacky time game. But it’s like you said
However, Id say that very inconsistency and half-baked is what is also making the tone shift. It’s a factor that contributes to the breaking of the game’s internal logic. For instance for some time there has been revamps to the map. More areas have been destroyed, like the starter island. However these changes apply to everyone. Doesn’t matter where you are in the story. As someone who started playing before the revamps, I can say we had different experiences and thoughts when reaching that first town. For me the town was deserted, no signs of struggles and death. It was just empty, and I wonderd why. That question is very important to the mystery the story sets up. And that get’s ruined because now the revamps have changed the part of the map. However since it isn’t tied to progression you ask, when does this take place? There is no job done to uphold continuity. And what it does is change the context for new players, which I think massively ruins the story and the care put into it. Or at least writing-wise, the mission designs themselves are kinda boring.
I’m sorry, it’s a bit hard to explain this big of a thing here on text, there is just so such stuff. I get that you don’t wanna watch the vids further cause of spoilers and that’s okay. I should have done a better job explaining the video’s intended audience and I hope I didn’t ruin something for you. Once you’ve played more of the game and maybe decide to watch the videos, I think it will be easier to understand my points.
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Don’t worry. You did not ruined anything. 
You bring interesting points in this reply.
No Man’s Sky also revamped a lot of things that cannot be experienced anymore unless someone decide to download old builds using DepotDownloader. 
In a way, you probably think I’m almost lucky to discover the game today instead of witnessing the modifications like you do (because you experienced the game earlier.)
You mean the first house?
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In my opinion the main game hasn’t changed tone, it hasn’t really been changed much at all. If we take a look at FNIX rising or the new resistance missions we clearly see a shift, but if we only were to look at the main game, not much has changed.
I get that fighting machines with a stick isn’t what the game looked like from day one, but when will you start using melee weapons? If I were to replay the game, I would go back to being scared of fighting robots again. If I were scared to fight them my first choice wouldn’t be a bat or hammer, it would be a gun. When you actually start fighting robots with melee you are already at the not scared anymore point, that’s when the game turns more into a sandbox. I have no problem entering the sandbox state of mind after being scared, it is now I can be fun and creative in killing robots.
If we look at the map revamps I feel that they are maybe not exactly like the game was advertised as, but it won’t instantly ruin your experience. The map revamps puts more life into things, tells you a story where before there were only mystery. But don’t we want mystery? Yes but we want a reason behind the mystery and that visual storytelling that tells us so much yet so little and it is perfect for the game.
So the problem with shift in tone in FNIX Rising missions and the new resistance missions? I see the problem but in my opinion if you play FNIX Rising after Alpine Unrest you probably have started to enter the “sandbox mindset” and FNIX rising helps put some dark tone on it while still letting you be creative and do your sandbox things. But if you on the other hand would choose to play FNIX Rising before alpine or before completing main game it would feel like they would try to change your mood and make the game more ‘fun’ without you going to that mood yourself first.
Then we have the problem of resistance missions, the problem is that they are right in open space of forest region, I feel that just like FNIX Rising it would be really fun to play these missions when you already entered the “sandbox mindset” but that it here too wouldn’t be great to do these before doing everything else. It here too has this inspiration that it is very real just that you have been fighting robots for a long time and you are getting used to it, so why not make stuff in a more fun way. So my main problem with the resistance missions is that they are so easy to find before you get into the “sandbox mindset” and therefore might not be the healthiest thing for players who aren’t in that mindset yet.
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That is very much true, my point was just that IMO the revamps change a lot of the context of the story.
I do agree with that, once you have good stuff then there isn’t a fear factor anymore. But id like to argue it’s something the game created for itself even before meele was introduced. The core game when you don’t have missions to do is grind. Grind grind grind and grind for materials, ammo, meds etc etc. The way you get things are always the same, and thus feels extremely repatative. It doesn’t feel like there is any meaningful progression when it’s all mindless grinding and rng.
As for the sandbox state, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. But the GZ is only fun at least for me around 1c to 3c guns. After that, you only need to rely on the meta guns such as the PVG and an assault rifle or lmg. Melee was interesting in a way because you can go up to the machine’s face, and take a big risk. And on paper, I think it’s cool, but it doesn’t fit the games tone at all and kinda just feels added just because. Traps were fun to somewhat try, but in most cases the machine ai either shoot me despite being hidden or ignore altogether. Traps take a lot of effort but don’t yield good results or are fun to pull off.
That is also true, however for me it is the way they are done that ruins the story. See, they make sense for players who have started playing before they started making the revamps, or play everytime a new update is out. Because then it actually feels like things are moving forward in the world. But the major problem is that revamps create this big continuity error for new players. Because everyone will always have the same version of the map. It makes zero sense for new people to see FNIX structure, because they only got there during FNIX rising.
Revamps would be better if they where tied to mission progression. So for instance when you have finished a portion of the main missions or all of them, the revamps that appeared when Alpine Unrest start to show up, and when you have finished Alpine Unrest then the revamps from FNIX rising show up.
For me, it’s the constant shortcuts in everything and the fix-it later mentality that brings forth all these inconsistencies that create an incoherent tone and atmosphere. That’s kinda the goal with the video this thread is about, to somewhat try to come up and discuss ideas that fill the gap or try to explain gameplay elements that fit in the world of the game. Rather than feeling like gameplay and the narrative are two separate entities.
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No, I mean the first town. Salthamn, before the revamps it was just empty. No sign of struggle, a few and actually very few hints of any sign of war. Now it’s just destructions, the story wants you to ask what happend. The very first machines you encounter give you that feeling of “okay there is an invasion going on, what happend to everyone else”. But now it’s just “ah okay machines blew up houses and stuff okay”.
Now as for the first hourse. I think the only change was a dead person with a brännboll bat next to them. Though it’s been a long time since I played so I’m not sure on that.
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Oh… I still have to get there. (I’m slowly moving toward this town.)
We must remember that developers also have to consider their own financial substainability. I’m sure there were good reasons for them to change things like Salthamn.
What I mean by “good reasons” is that maybe they understood how to attract more players to the game. Maybe they read Steam reviews and Metacritic user reviews and decided to modify some things to attract and retain more types of players. If they want to develop the “Generation Zero” IP, they probably want to grow the player base.
Developers like Balancing Monkey Games are doing some slight revamping on their game Before We Leave for exactly the reasons I mentionned, but they are being very transparent and communicative about it.
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I just read a good part of the whole thread and the revamping definitely makes me think of what happened to No Man’s Sky each time they introduced new story elements to the game: it either added nothing that we didn’t already knew (or deduced), and it created annoying continuity issues.
It created a division between some members of the community because people who care very much about lore, like @JoJo_the_memedealer and me, also “share” the game with some people who mostly want gameplay revamps or new features without much interest for the lore or even the atmosphere.
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I always take time to read your comments JoJo, thank you for the response lol
It is a sad deal for sure, not that a sludge hammer cant do damage to a runner but I still think it should take at least a few swings. The stun makes some sence… but for Big bois No Not really.
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In a way you are right, at the end of the day Generation Zero is a product that has to make money. As I’ve probably mentioned many times in the thread and the video, that next chapter section of the official Generation Zero website more or less says, or at least feels like they don’t really have much of a direction. Instead, kinda do whatever and change along the way. If there is one thing lots of reviews mentioned was amount of copy and paste assets in Generation Zero, being from Sweden I can tell they did a decent job of making the houses. But the illusion fades extremely quickly due the extreme amount of copy and paste.
I think the revamps were a response to that. But I think it makes it worse because there is zero work to maintain proper continuity and houses are getting boarded up plus destroyed, when before you could enter them. Personally, I’d rather the revamps be actually revamps. Make the towns more unique and somewhat believable. Hospitals, schools, multiple stores that aren’t the same ones on a street etc.
In the end they way GZ is being developed I feel like it’s an early access game but hidden beneath the promises of later fixes. Now it feels like they are just kinda leaving the grounded and dark tone behind and slowly adding “mainstream” features to appeal to a wider audience. Wich I normally would be fine with if it was done right. Crafting and the homebase are IMO are barebones. Crafting doesn’t give any benefits because the stats are so low.
I have never heard about them nor the game, but I think I’ll check it out.
Thanks, considering how wacky things can get, I appricate that
That actually made me think of something, melee could actually work if the exp or foa exo suit cosmetics weren’t just cosmetics and instead actually had functions. Let’s say lore wise foa had made a exp high tech exo suit that was initially built for workers that carry stuff. And through a quest we could get it (not from a random machine cause IMO that’s basic and boring). With a help of a ex foa engineer it could be modified to increase the users strength more so meele could be used. Then remove the EXP sledgehammer (because lore wise it actually doesn’t make sense at all but I wont explain because then this text would be mega long) and the bränboll trä, because none of them make sense at all. Instead have a melee weapon that’s actually built to kill machines.
So TLDR create a fun way to make meele make sense that fits the games world other than being a thrown in feature.
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I think Its a good Idea Especially since it would add credibility to pulling off melee attacks.
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I agree with you for the most part, the melee weapons we do have could still be useful against runners. (Or ticks…but we dont talk about those)
The part that I agree on the most tho, is the machine slaying weapon that would be unique to its true purpose (slaying robots) whether it be built using the blade from a hunter or just a large piercing weapon. All this assuming you have a fully functional exo suit.
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I even think if they have done that with the way we describe meele, with the EXP sledgehammer and just in general, it would make sense. Not from a realism POV but a story one. Given the context of how deadly the machines are and how hard the military failed, it seems odd that some random teenager would go around hitting machines with a wooden bränboll bat. Doesn’t add up with what was established at all. But if meele was presented as a high-risk high-reward thing, and getting it required progressing to get an exo suit ( that isn’t RNG based) it would feel so much more rewarding.
If they just spent effort and time trying to create a cohesive world instead of randomly throwing stuff in, ie the weapon packs and the reaper. I think so much of the game could be better.
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This Is a good idea, an Idea that is enticing
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I dont mind the variety of guns, tho they could be more centered around the situation.
As for the reaper, I wish it just was just roaming around like any other insted of it being a boss. I like the danger of it, but knowing its location ruins the surprise of Death lurking around.
I like the difficulty of the machine because of having to decide whether to avoid it or hunt it. It gives the sense of being the Resistance and not “Master Chief” if you catch my drift?
I didn’t think about that, sounds actually more dangerous and maybe i’d be a little scared. Despite it’s generic movesets (AOE and stomp), not knowing it’s out there would fit in the game better. Rivals included I’m not a fan of how the game has this need to explain stuff by an external force outside the games story. By that I mean the wall of text that appears when you first spawn it, in the reaper segment in the video at 26:56.
It just takes out so much what made the reaper interesting before it became a fightable machine, there was so much mystery around it. What’s sad is that it’s never talked about in the game itself, it existing has no impact on the story what so every, it feels so out of place.
I can agree with that, but for me personally, it’s not so much about the difficulty. Rather it is the way you fight it. The AOE and shields only make the reaper hard in a cheap way, there’s not much in learning a strategy, it’s just the same tactics as any other tank but you just need to DPS more. If you die then just adrenaline shot or respawn and try again. There is no consequence to losing, aside from losing a bunch of ammo. But when you do kill it, you get all that back anyway plus some EXP guns. Wich in the end are the same rewards as you get from a normal rival. Sure there is the EXP sledgehammer but I’m not a fan of melee so wouldn’t use it, then there is the cosmetic you can get. But it has zero functions so it’s useless.
TL:DR Nothing about the reaper does anything or impact the story or world. Rewards are just more of the same so the end goal feels more like grinding ammo than doing anything meaningful.
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